TESTING HOW TIMBER HOMES PERFORM

Energy House 2.0 is a £16million testing facility that is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund and harnesses the University of Salford’s expertise in climate and the built environment. This unique facility builds upon the success of the original Energy House Laboratory, which was opened in 2012. Completed in February this year, the Energy House 2.0 facility is the largest of its kind in the world, with two chambers which can accommodate two detached homes. These chambers can replicate weather conditions including rain, wind, snow and solar radiation, with temperatures ranging from -20 degrees to +40 degrees centigrade.

houses commonly built today. Pasquill’s Posi-Joist™️ cassettes’ metal webbed design creates a larger service void, allowing for easy and free routeing of utilities such as Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery systems (MVHR) throughout the home.

The pioneering eHome2 is a threebedroom family home built inside the world-leading Energy House 2.0 climatic chamber facility at the University of Salford. Over a period of nine months, the house will undergo rigorous whole-building testing –including thermal performance, energy efficiency, running costs and residential comfort, as well as its ability to cope with extreme temperatures and climatic conditions.

The eHome2 house was built using a combination of offsite methods, with Saint-Gobain Off-site Solutions brands Scotframe and Pasquill supplying advanced timber frame products and factory-installed pre-insulated walls. eHome2 – a collaborative partnership between housebuilder Barratt Developments, Saint-Gobain Off-Site Solutions, and additional brands within the Saint-Gobain UK & Ireland group, seeks to change the way we build highquality, sustainable and future-ready new homes in the UK. As such, the data gathered from eHome2, which is operationally net zero, will help inform how the housebuilding sector will design and build zero-carbon housing at scale using sustainable building materials and offsite solutions.

Futureproofing with Posi-Joists

Manufactured and assembled at Pasquill’s flagship Chorley site, the floor cassettes supplied to eHome2 are a timber frame construction. As the project is being built to exceed Future Home Standards requirements, it has been designed to accommodate many more heating, ventilation and renewable energy services than the

These top-hung Posi-Joist floor cassettes also help speed up the process of installation and reduce the thermal bridging at wall-floor interfaces. Pasquill has also supplied the roof trusses for eHome2 to help create a thermally efficient attic space. Combining traditional trusses with attic trusses has created a space that can also house additional services and pipework required to run future smart homes. Both the Posi-Joist cassettes and the roof truss systems add to the pre-manufactured value of the eHome2 build.

Thermally efficient panelised solution eHome2 features a new proposed MMC category 2 closed panel solution from Scotframe. The wall panel system, which is assembled with BRE A+ rated Isover mineral wool between the i-stud based timber frame, provides maintenancefree and long-lasting insulation. This cuts energy bills, while innovative connections reduce thermal bridging design and enhance airtightness.

With the inclusion of critical vapour control membranes, service zones and externally fitted battens, the system speeds up on-site build time and ensures a high-performing fabric –achieving 0.13 W/m2k. The result is a solution with a performance point that exceeds Future Home Standard requirements without the need for additional site-installed installation. It also means that the house can be erected from the slab to the finished roof in only two weeks, including cladding and windows.

Tom Cox, Technical and Development Director, Saint-Gobain Off-Site Solutions, added: “This project is a fantastic demonstration of how offsite can deliver a high premanufactured value to housing developers. In particular, our brands Pasquill and Scotframe have made a significant contribution, with innovative timberengineered panels and cassettes which have sped up the build and increased its sustainability credentials.

“When working with the Barratt design team on the project, designers chose to use the Posi-Joist™️ cassette system to allow for easy rooting of utilities, which are required for future homes design. Meanwhile, the new panel system itself has also had a number of tests carried out on it so it’s looking like it’s going to be quite an exciting solution for developers moving forward.”

During 2023, the house will undergo rigorous whole-building research and testing including thermal performance, energy efficiency, running costs and

COMFORTABLE & AFFORDABLE

comfort as well as its ability to cope with extreme temperatures and climatic conditions. The chamber can replicate environmental conditions experienced by 95% of the world’s population. Many of the technologies being tested are due to be in common use by 2026, so data gathered from this research period will inform how the housebuilding sector will design and build properties

What exactly is a comfortable and affordable home?

This is something very different for every individual and every homeowner. But with the chamber soon to close and enter its test phase all eyes will be on the results of the many sensors embedded in the homes to measure the different heating systems and fabric performance.

“With offsite, you have the capability to build a robust, standardised, repeatable product and get the same results every time,” says Tom Cox, Technical Director, Saint Gobain Off-Site Solutions. “This will demonstrate that a home produced in the same way, delivered and commissioned in the same way can deliver the end result that you want in terms of thermal efficiency and airtightness. The end product is thought about all the way through the design process.” to meet the 2025 Future Homes and Building Standard and deliver low and zero carbon housing at scale.

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01-03. eHome2 will be trialled across a range of weather conditions for energy and thermal efficiency and features timber systems from Scotframe and Pasquill

04. Tom Cox, Technical and Development Director, Saint-Gobain Off-Site Solutions

“Offsite systems are engineered within a factory process with controls in a very ordered and qualified way. You are not facing the potential risks of site-based mistakes resulting in issues down the line during a building’s lifespan. Offsite is not a brand-new ‘space-age thing’ it’s often a lot of established materials being brought together in more solutionbased way. This all needs to be communicated in the right way.

“A big piece of the research is trying to understand how you balance design and deliver a comfortable, sustainable wellheated home in a scalable and achievable building shell. Balancing the fabric first approach with MEP, glazing and bring it all together in a number of flexible weather conditions, we can prove that this type of system will give you a specific cost to run with a certain comfort perception. Being able to qualify the embodied carbon of a kit at the level of the full structure and bring together all these different elements, all detailed correctly and knowing it works will be a game changer.”

Operating as a collaborative ‘chamber’ project and not ‘silo’ data being driven and collected by Saint Gobain, the final results will be published through Salford University and disseminated through the Future Homes Hub. The hope is to extend the testing for a further two years via Innovate UK to establish greater understanding of how the homes operate.

You can follow developments at: www.saint-gobain.co.uk/eHome2